Selective photodissociation of tailored molecular tags as a tool for quantum optics.

Recent progress in synthetic chemistry and molecular quantum optics has enabled demonstrations of the quantum mechanical wave-particle duality for complex particles, with masses exceeding 10 kDa. Future experiments with even larger objects will require new optical preparation and manipulation methods that shall profit from the possibility to cleave a well-defined molecular tag from a larger parent molecule. Here we present the design and synthesis of two model compounds as well as evidence for the photoinduced beam depletion in high vacuum in one case.

Laser-induced acoustic desorption of natural and functionalized biochromophores.

Laser-induced acoustic desorption (LIAD) has recently been established as a tool for analytical chemistry. It is capable of launching intact, neutral, or low charged molecules into a high vacuum environment. This makes it ideally suited to mass spectrometry.

Stability of high-mass molecular libraries: the role of the oligoporphyrin core.

Molecular beam techniques are a key to many experiments in physical chemistry and quantum optics. In particular, advanced matter-wave experiments with high-mass molecules profit from the availability of slow, neutral and mass-selected molecular beams that are sufficiently stable to remain intact during laser heating and photoionization mass spectrometry. We present experiments on the photostability with molecular libraries of tailored oligoporphyrins with masses up to 25,000 Da.

Cavity cooling of free silicon nanoparticles in high vacuum.

Laser cooling has given a boost to atomic physics throughout the last 30 years, as it allows one to prepare atoms in motional states, which can only be described by quantum mechanics. Most methods rely, however, on a near-resonant and cyclic coupling between laser light and well-defined internal states, which has remained a challenge for mesoscopic particles. An external cavity may compensate for the lack of internal cycling transitions in dielectric objects and it may provide assistance in the cooling of their centre-of-mass state.